Follow my story as I leave my son and husband to take up a new job 90 miles from home after years of being a stay-at-home mother and wife; and as my time in Leicester comes to end, dealing with what comes next...

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Back To Work and Nannymania

After confirming and re-confirming with Diane that she was happy to start on Tuesday, I left for Leicester on Sunday night.

I had training on Monday so I squeezed myself (all those Portugese catalanas and creme caramel desserts did not help) into a skirt suit and made my way to the office.

I was early so no one was in when I got there but SN, my manager soon arrived. He was falling over himself to be pleasant, saying it was nice to have me back, asking of my holiday etc etc... internally, I could not figure why I was not more receptive when I remembered that it was the first time I'd seen him since his stupid email to me. "Idiot" I thought as I sweetly answered his questions, smiling. He scurried to help me carry the manuals I needed to the training room and dispatched one of his minions to help me sort out the projector and any other stuff I might need. When I relayed my childcare problems, he was sooooo sympathetic and was happy to grant me the Tues and Wed off I requested to return home to settle my new nanny in.

Was this SN I thought? No, it was God. It could only be. Anyway, at this rate, with 6 days off for holiday and another 2 days back in London, plus February is the shortest month, there'll probably be no need to bill them at the end of the month as I'd hardly have done any time at all!

Everybody was really pleasant, even Fran the main boss guy... I thought I had stumbled into a parallel world version of my office but where everyone was nice.

I left after training and headed off home. I had arranged another interview that evening with another potential nanny even though I had sealed the deal with Diane. My eyes were now 'hard', no room for sentiment, if I liked this one better, I'd ask Diane (or rather get my sister to call her pretending to be me) not to bother starting.

I also had another potential arriving on Saturday or Tuesday next week and if I liked her, then I'd get whoever was in the house at the moment to leave. Hee hee hee

I had nannies trooping in from every corner. Tunji ofcourse thought I was crazy and warned "you better know what you are doing".

Anyway, I met up with the second potential, Wendy, and she looked more like you'd expect a nanny to look. When I asked her how many children she had, she said "a lot". Well, a lot to me is the number of children Diane has which is 7, so I said "7?" Wendy said "No, 14" I said "Sorry? Do you mean you have 14 children?" She nodded her head with a weary look on her face like she'd woken up each time and found another addition to her family. "Any twins?" "No" she said. "Wow!"

We got home from the station where I'd picked her up and Kitan ran to me at the door. The first thing Wendy said was "he looks familiar, I've seen this baby before". I was like "Which baby? You can't mean my son. Where?" Then Tunji came out to meet us in the hallway and she said "I know this man from somewhere" - this was getting crazy. I asked her what was the name of the family she was working with before. She had already told me the 'madam' kicked her out when she had a bad flu recently and could not work for a few days. It turns out that husband is Tunji's very good friend and Tunji had gone there recently with Kitan. This is why she recognised them. To cut a long story short, when we called them for a reference on her, they were falling over themselves to list all the issues they'd had with her resulting in them asking her to leave. Yikes!

While Tunji was on the phone with his pal, I had been showing her round the house, explaining the chores, eventually offering her the job and asking her to start the next day, same as Diane. Tunji asked me to tell her we could not take her, but I did not have the heart to as I dropped her off at the station.

So now tomorrow, I have Diane starting at 11am and Wendy starting at 1pm not to mention Jenny arriving within a week to start.

Even with the bad report, I still prefer Wendy, most of the issues against her can be put down to clash of personalities. My sister says go with Wendy as she's been recommended by her own nanny and Diane is a total stranger. My friend Kemi says go with Diane as my being away from home will give Wendy liberty to take licence if she already has the tendency to be lazy and overuse the phone calling her 14 children everyday.

I'm going to wait till the morning and see how I feel.

p.s A new phrase that tripped me as I was reading a blog: "What the hell ever"

9 comments:

Hate to tell you this but really your hubby is right. You have lost it :-) Then again, this is so classic you that it reminds me of why you are a Unique child of God.You go girl. How you an juggle 3 nannies should warrant a blog in itself. You better not have hired all of them by the time I need one :-)

Hi Omara Welcome back. It sounds like you had a nice holiday. I am sorry to hear about the childcare issues. This was a big struggle for me. We finally worked something out, but it was a strugge to resolve it all. My prayers are with you and Kitan.

Jos dear, me the mother that was filming still laughed before going to 'rescue'.

Breast feeding at 3:45 am... Enjoy it while it lasts, these times with M won't come again. I remember crying in the shower for days after I stopped breast feeding Kitan at 10 months. I still have a bag of breast milk in the freezer as a reminder.

I agree with your sister. The wendy lady can't be bad else she wouldn't have told you she recognised your son and hubby. You know what your friends said and if its down to personal issues then take her..Also just let her know do' and dont's fro day 1. shey you guys have free calls and all..if she is looking after your son well then using the phone aint a problem, just tell her nicely don't spend time on the phone.. i wish you well..I always prefer people who are referred..so make sure you take her former employees (non) recommendations seriously then decide..all the best

omara!!! don;t even let me start again wiv my nanny drama. but i reall y don't blame u doubling up but u have to summon d courage to drop on of em at least woever u keep that doesn't workout within a wk can get replaced by d pending interviewee